Continuum Caliburn -- Most Expensive Turntable in the World

by Josh Ray on November 03 '05

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the most expensive turntable in the world. The new Continuum Caliburn starts at $90k and goes up to $112k depending on finishes and includes some of the most amazing technology ever to touch black. Vinyl isn't dead, it's alive and kicking through the most passionate audiophiles who know the little silver disc ain't got nothing on Ol' Waxy.

Premiering at CES 2005, the Caliburn is already in possession of three lucky souls. While speaking to the US distributor I tried to find out who these people were. Actors? Rappers? Bloggers? Alas, all I got was a "we respect their privacy." Forget that, I want names, addresses and security gate codes. I mean, really, is that too much to ask?

Keep reading for our insider scoop on the new king of vinyl.

Part of what makes this turntable more than just your garden variety Technics is the 80 lb platter the record sits on. To achieve butter-smooth spinning of the gigantic disc, the Caliburn uses pressurized oil pumped up from the box in the middle, creating a vacuum inside of the platter that levitates nearly all of the 80 lbs.

Running $12, 500 if you buy one alone, the Cobra tone arm is "created in three dimensions using Finite Element Analysis in concert with artificially-intelligent reshaping algorithms, the Cobra represents a breakthrough in how the structure and performance of a tonearm is designed." Yeah, my brain hurts too.

If that's not enough, even the Continuum Castellon shelving system is special, using a passive levitating top shelf tuned to 1/2Hz. How that happens is shrouded in secrecy, but I am told it's successful enough to have elicited interest from non-audio sectors -- think electron tunneling microscopes, dark mater detectors and other hyper sensitive devices.

Price includes everything pictured as well as the Continuum installation team to fly out to wherever you are in the world and massage your system into perfection. US Distributor Signals SuperFi also distributes the Danish Peak Consult super speakers and manufactures the review-slaying Stereovox Cables so as to provide you with a KISS package of one of the best audio systems in the world, all for the price of a new Ferrari (or double-wide, in my case).

Also, keep your eyes peeled for a huge review of the Continuum Caliburn system in Stereophile come January. Will the Continuum defeat the reigning Wax King, the Rockport Technologies Sirius turntable? Rumor on the street is there may be an upset, but we'll have to wait to see...

[Update: content changed for accuracy. US Distributor Chris Sommovigo has this to say: "Actually, you can't see anything in the vacuum chamber because it lives inside the bearing/platter interface - what you see through the window is the bottom half of the platter spinning. That platter is partially (passively) levitated so that the bearing only experiences between 1 and 2 kilos of weight, but the inertia and mass of the 40 kilo platter remain intact...the oil is an undisclosed product that costs more than $15/cc ... and the system uses way more than 1cc! (think ca: 100cc)"]

Comments

"the Caliburn is already in possession of three lucky souls"
OH MY GOD it possesses your soul too???